| Abstract: | Assessed latency and redundancy deficit, which reliably show impairment in process schizophrenics, using 20 normal Ss (mean age 30.4 yrs) with no psychiatric history. Ss were tested under standard/optimal and drug-impaired conditions to evaluate whether an expected increase in latency would be accompanied by a correlated increase in redundancy deficit. Ss completed RT trials in which they depressed and released a key in response to slides and a buzzer. Meprobamate was administered for the 2nd series of trials. In other research, the redundancy deficit index has been found to be independent of latency and has shown promise as a marker of schizophrenic information processing difficulty. The present findings confirm the independence of these 2 markers in that no increased redundancy deficit was observed despite a significant increase in latency. Findings also reveal a greater degree of redundancy deficit in normals under the optimal conditions than had been expected. A methodological problem with trial arrangements is discussed, and a review of studies that tested redundancy deficit in normal Ss is presented. (French abstract) (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
